CAREER INJECTION

Just do it. Should Transformers’ fallen star quit performance art and take revenge on critics by, you know, acting?

Why Shia needs a re-Beouf.

In a 2015 cine-stunt, Shia LaBeouf was filmed watching a marathon of his own movies. Pity he wasn’t in Burnley for the opening weekend of his latest, as he would have doubled its takings. One person saw PTSD drama Man Down, begging the question: was 2016’s superb American Honey a freak case in LaBeouf’s dip from superstar to perf-art prankster, or is credibility still within his reach?

The relish of the headlines about LaBeouf’s latest flop suggests not, but he wasn’t Man Down’s only star. Gary Oldman, Kate Mara and Jai Courtney didn’t get the display-font slap-downs. And although kicking LaBeouf can seem a popular sport, closer investigation suggests reviewers liked his performance more than the film. “Believably instinctual,” wrote The AV Club. “Superb,” wrote The Observer’s Wendy Ide. Variety compared him to Brando/Clift. To which: blimey.

Sure, LaBeouf has had his hiccups and mis-judgements. He shot to stardom after his Disney graduation with Disturbia, but what a pity he chose the Transformers films to earn his franchise chops in, and what a pity the worst Indiana Jones film became his temple of impending career doom. Disappointed Jones-ians scapegoated LaBeouf so fiercely, you’d almost think he nuked the fridge single-handedly.

LaBeouf’s subsequent Spielberg disses ran the risk of appearing ungracious. But give him some rope. In an age when many actors still play it safe, at least he’s tried to do something interesting after his CGI movies, when he isn’t faffing about with performance art and goofy motivational speeches.

Sure, even Megan Fox ripped him for trying too hard on the Transformers films. But LaBeouf’s hyper-earnest pitch can work if a film merits that commitment. Dick van dufus accent aside, he made complex work of Nymphomaniac’s Jerôme. In the patchy Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, he smartly balanced emotion and cynicism. Although self-harming for tank pic Fury reeked of method-ly self-aggrandisement, he’s so naturally intense in Andrea Arnold’s American Honey you almost don’t notice how layered his performance is. So what if Arnold’s audience isn’t Transformers sized? Perhaps LaBeouf might do better work on the fringes, for directors risky enough to cast him. If he quits the stunts and makes more films there, we’ll soon see if this man’s down. KH